Jordan formally annexed the West Bank on April 24, 1950. The annexation was regarded as illegal and void by the Arab League and others. It was recognized only by Britain, Iraq and Pakistan.[4][5][6] The annexation of the West Bank more than doubled the population of Jordan.[3]

On September 22, 1948, the All-Palestine Government was established in Gaza captured by Egypt. On September 30, the First Palestine Congress, which saw Palestine as part of Syria, denounced the Gaza "government."[8] The December 1948 Jericho Conference, a meeting of prominent Palestinian leaders and King Abdullah, voted in favor of annexation into what was then Transjordan.[9]

By the end of the war, Jordanian forces had control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. On April 3, 1949, Israel and Jordan signed an armistice agreement. The main points included:

Jordan withdrew its forces from its front posts overlooking the Sharon plain. In return, Israel agreed to allow Jordanian forces to take over positions in the West Bank previously held by Iraqi forces.

The remainder of the area designated as part of an Arab state under the UN Partition Plan was partly occupied by Egypt (Gaza Strip), partly occupied and annexed by Israel (West Negev, West Galilee, Jaffa). The intended international enclave of Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan. The Jordanians immediately expelled all the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem.[10] All but one of the 35 synagogues in the Old City were destroyed over the course of the next 19 years, either razed or used as stables and chicken coops. Many other historic and religiously significant buildings were replaced by modern structures.[11][12] The ancient Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives was desecrated, and the tombstones were used for construction, paving roads and lining latrines; the highway to the Intercontinental Hotel was built on top of the site.[13]

In March 1948, the British Cabinet had agreed that the civil and military authorities in Palestine should make no effort to oppose the setting up of a Jewish State or a move into Palestine from Transjordan.[14]

The United States, together with the United Kingdom favored the annexation by Transjordan. The UK preferred to permit King Abdullah to annex the territory at the earliest date, while the United States preferred to wait until after the conclusion of the Palestine Conciliation Commission brokered negotiations.[15]

Jordan formally annexed the West Bank on April 24, 1950, giving all residents automatic Jordanian citizenship. West Bank residents had already received the right to claim Jordanian citizenship in December 1949.

Jordan's annexation was widely regarded as illegal and void by the Arab League and others. Elihu Lauterpacht, an international legal expert, described it as a move that "entirely lacked legal justification."[16] The annexation formed part of Jordan’s "Greater Syria Plan" expansionist policy,[17] and in response, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Syria joined Egypt in demanding Jordan’s expulsion from the Arab League.[18][19] A motion to expel Jordan from the League was prevented by the dissenting votes of Yemen and Iraq.[17] On June 12, 1950, the Arab League declared the annexation was a temporary, practical measure and that Jordan was holding the territory as a “trustee” pending a future settlement.[20][21] On July 27, 1953, King Hussein of Jordan announced that East Jerusalem was "the alternative capital of the Hashemite Kingdom" and would form an "integral and inseparable part" of Jordan.[22] In an address to parliament in Jerusalem in 1960, Hussein called the city the "second capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan".[23]

In 1950, the British extended formal recognition to the union between the Hashemite Kingdom and that part of Palestine under Jordanian occupation and control - with the exception of Jerusalem. The British government stated that it regarded the provisions of the Anglo-Jordan Treaty of Alliance of 1948 as applicable to all the territory included in the union.[29] Despite Arab League opposition, the inhabitants of the West Bank became citizens of Jordan.

Tensions continued between Jordan and Israel through the early 1950s, with Palestinian guerrillas and Israeli commandos crossing the Green Line. Abdullah I of Jordan, who had become Emir of Transjordan in 1921 and King in 1923, was assassinated in 1951 during a visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem by a Palestinian gunman following rumours that he was discussing a peace treaty with Israel. The trial found that this assassination had been planned by Colonel Abdullah el-Tell, ex-military governor of Jerusalem, and Musa Abdullah Husseini. He was succeeded by his grandson King Hussein of Jordan once he came of age in 1953, after his father Talal's brief reign.

Unlike any other Arab country to which they fled after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Palestinian refugees in the West Bank (and on the East Bank) were given Jordanian citizenship on the same basis as existing residents.[30] However, many of the refugees continued to live in camps and relied on UNRWA assistance for sustenance. Palestinian refugees constituted more than a third of the kingdom's population of 1.5 million.

In the Jordanian parliament, the West and East Banks received 30 seats each, having roughly equal populations. The first elections were held on 11 April 1950. Although the West Bank had not yet been annexed, its residents were permitted to vote. The last Jordanian elections in which West Bank residents would vote were those of April 1967, but their parliamentary representatives would continue in office until 1988, when West Bank seats were finally abolished.

Agriculture remained the primary activity of the territory. The West Bank, despite its smaller area, contained half of Jordan's agricultural land. In 1966, 43% of the labor force of 55,000 worked in agriculture, and 2,300 km² were under cultivation. (Numbers that have fallen considerably since.) In 1965, 15,000 workers were employed in industry, producing 7% of the GNP. This number fell after the 1967 war, and would not be surpassed until 1983.[31] The tourism industry also played an important role. 26 branches of 8 Arab banks were present. The Jordanian dinar became legal tender, and remains so there today.[citation needed]

There was a significant flow of population from the West Bank to East Bank, in particular to the capital, Amman.

Jordan had obligated itself within the framework of the 3 April 1949 Armistice Agreements to allow "free access to the holy sites and cultural institutions and use of the cemeteries on the Mount of Olives." Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit the Temple Mount, but Jews of all countries and non-Jewish Israelis were barred from entering Jordan and therefore could not travel to the area.[32] Tourists entering East Jerusalem had to present baptismal certificates or other proof they were not Jewish.[33][34]

The special committee that was to make arrangements for visits to holy places was never formed and Israelis, irrespective of religion, were barred from entering the Old City and other holy sites.[35] The Jewish Quarter and its ancient synagogues were systematically destroyed such as the Hurva Synagogue[36][37] and gravestones from the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives were used to build latrines for Jordanian army barracks.[38][39]

By the end of the Six-Day War, the formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank with its one million Palestinian population had come under Israeli military occupation. About 300,000 Palestinian refugees fled to Jordan. After 1967, all religious groups were granted administration over their own holy sites, while administration of the Temple Mount—sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims—remained in the hands of the Islamic waqf which had held the responsibility for the previous 800 years.

On July 31, 1988, Jordan renounced its claims to the West Bank (with the exception of guardianship over the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem), and recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization as "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."[40][41]

The 1993 Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel "opened the road for Jordan to proceed on its own negotiating track with Israel."[42] The Washington Declaration[43] was initialed one day after the Oslo Accords were signed. "On July 25, 1994, King Hussein met with Israeli Prime Minister Rabin in the Rose Garden of the White House, where they signed the Washington Declaration, formally ending the 46-year state of war between Jordan and Israel."[42] Finally, on October 26, 1994, Jordan signed the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, which normalized relations between the two countries and resolved territorial disputes between them.

^Benveniśtî, Eyāl (2004). The international law of occupation. Princeton University Press. p. 108. ISBN0-691-12130-3. This purported annexation was, however, widely regarded as illegal and void, by the Arab League and others, and was recognized only by Britain, Iraq, and Pakistan.

^Yoram Dinstein; Mala Tabory (1 September 1994). Israel Yearbook on Human Rights: 1993. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 41. ISBN978-0-7923-2581-9. Retrieved 21 December 2010. Israel considers Jordan’s annexation of the West Bank, recognised only by Great Britain and Pakistan, to have been illegal.

^Foreign relations of the United States, 1950. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Page 1096

^Eli E. Hertz (April 2005). Reply. Myths and Facts, Inc. p. 108. ISBN978-0-9741804-0-3. Retrieved 21 December 2010. Thus Jordan’s occupation of the Old City, and indeed of the whole of the area west of the Jordan, entirely lacked legal justification.

^ abNaseer Hasan Aruri (1972). Jordan: a study in political development (1921-1965). Springer. p. 90. ISBN978-90-247-1217-5. Retrieved 22 December 2010. For Abdullah, the annexation of Palestine was the first step in the implementation of his Greater Syria Plan. His expansionist policy placed him at odds with Egypt and Saudi Arabic. Syria and Lebanon, which would be included in the Plan were uneasy. The annexation of Palestine was, therefore, condemned by the Arab League’s Political Committee on May 15, 1950.

^American Jewish Committee; Jewish Publication Society of America (1951). American Jewish year book. American Jewish Committee. pp. 405–6. Retrieved 21 December 2010. On April 13, 1950, the council of the League resolved that Jordan's annexation of Arab Palestine was illegal, and at a meeting of the League's political committee on May 15, 1950, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Syria joined Egypt in demanding Jordan’s expulsion from the Arab League.

^Council for Middle Eastern Affairs (1950). Middle Eastern affairs. Council for Middle Eastern Affairs. p. 206. Retrieved 21 December 2010. May 12: Jordan's Foreign Minister walks out of the Political Committee during the discussion of Jordan's annexation of Arab Palestine. May 15: The Political Committee agrees that Jordan's annexation of Arab Palestine was illegal and violated the Arab League resolution of Apr. 12, 1948. A meeting is called for June 12 to decide whether to expel Jordan or take punitive action against her.

^Joseph Massad said that the members of the Arab League granted de facto recognition and that the United States had formally recognized the annexation, except for Jerusalem. See Massad, Joseph A. (2001). Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 229. ISBN0-231-12323-X.

^Al Abed, Oroub. "Palestinian refugees in Jordan"(PDF). Forced Migration Online. Retrieved July 6, 2015. Palestinians were granted Jordanian Citizenship. Article 3 of the 1954 law states that a Jordanian national is: ‘Any person with previous Palestinian nationality except the Jews before the date of May 15, 1948 residing in the Kingdom during the period from December 20, 1949 and February 16, 1954.’ Thus Palestinians in the East Bank and the West Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan were granted Jordanian nationality.

^Thomas A Idinopulos, Jerusalem, 1994, p. 300, "So severe were the Jordanian restrictions against Jews gaining access to the old city that visitors wishing to cross over from west Jerusalem...had to produce a baptismal certificate."

^Armstrong, Karen, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, 1997, "Only clergy, diplomats, UN personnel, and a few privileged tourists were permitted to go from one side to the other. The Jordanians required most tourists to produce baptismal certificates — to prove they were not Jewish ... ."

^Benny Morris (1 October 2008). 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. Yale University Press. p. 218. ISBN978-0-300-14524-3. Retrieved 14 July 2013. On 26–27 May, the Legionnaires took the Hurvat Israel (or “Hurva”) Synagogue, the quarter’s largest and most sacred building, and then, without reason, blew it up. “This affair will rankle for generations in the heart of world Jewry,” predicted one Foreign Office official. The destruction of the synagogue shook Jewish morale.